Tom can see that several of the cemetery’s graves have been dug up, and large mounds of fresh, dark earth lie piled around gaping holes. Two individuals—swollen-looking human men equipped with shovels—are working in one of the graves. Bent over in their labor, they are barely visible until one of them stands straighter and hefts his shovel over one shoulder, staring at Tom.
“Keep back, good masters,” he says, through a handkerchief tied round his face. “I wouldn’t come no closer. This one’s all ripe with the plague, and they say she’s contagious. One whiff, and you could turn black as pitch and be deader than old Tar-Baphon.”
Tom gets the sense that the man isn't being truthful.
"Too right! I'm outta here!"
Tom pops down from the fence "the worm guys are digging up graves. Time for violence."
Tom moves to check the front door of the church.
The men in the graveyard shrug and go back to their digging.
Tom quietly peers inside the church's front door. The nave is filled with long wooden pews marred by long claw marks. Comfortable cushions of gold velvet have been shredded, their feather stuffing spilling out upon the benches and the wood floor. Leather-bound books have been yanked from the small wooden shelves built into the back of each pew and torn apart, their illuminated pages mixing with the accumulated mess that covers the ground. A chancel at the west end of the nave contains an altar in front of a magnificent mural of Abadar and other gods defeating the monstrous Rovagug. The altar has the appearance of a desk, although its cloth-of-gold covering, abacus, scales, and ledgers are ripped and knocked over. In the northwest corner of the sanctuary, an overturned stone font leans against a stone door.
Two creatures are trashing the furnishings of the church. A tiny, winged fiend is at the banking desk, perusing the town's financial records. A horrid, horned fiend wearing a gray hoodless cloak stands behind the altar, defacing the mural of Abadar. Both are distracted and don't immediately notice Tom.
Ruinë tries to recall information about the fiends, but she is beating herself up too much in her own head to remember much of anything right now.
Ruine identifies the smaller fiend as a demon known as a quasit! Demons are living incarnations of sin—be they classic sins like wrath or gluttony, or more “specialized” depravities like an obsession with torture or the act of treason or treachery. Unlike other demons, quasits are formed when a mortal spellcaster sheds a portion of their own sinful soul to create a familiar or companion. When these quasits outlive their creators, they become free willed and seek methods of returning to the Abyss, a task that requires pledging servitude to more powerful demons.
It stands to reason the other fiend is also a demon, albeit an unfamiliar one. Demons are weak to cold iron and good aligned damage.
"... and we have neither," Tasha mutters to herself. "Well, we must needs do with what we have. Let's start with the demons."
With a kick of a long leg, she shoves in the front door.
"Face our wrath, foul creatures!" she announces to the two fiends.
Both demons react quickly, snarling and moving closer before targeting Tasha and Tom with magical fear!
Success The target is frightened 1.
Failure The target is frightened 2.
Critical Failure The target is frightened 3 and fleeing for 1 round.
Tom begins to {A} Juggle, 2 knives and an apple then he throws the apple HARD at the wall next to the quasit to create a
A knife is launched next, right at the quasit
Ignoring the pounding in her chest, Tasha strides forward and stabs at the larger otherworldly creature.
Grelda fires three magic missiles at the quasit.
Ruinë has a slight pang of panic when Tasha boldly dashes into the broken building. When she spots the demons, she identifies them. She moves up and places her back to Tasha's and whispers "I'm here." before turning to face the quasit and boldy declares "You do not belong here, quasit. May Sarenrae's flames cleanse your stain from this holy place. Be gone!"
Flames burst forth from the cleric's hands, arcing towards the tiny creature to whom she hopes to extinguish.
Alainn appraises the threats and decides that the casting figure is the greater danger, before shooting at him!
Grelda and Tom strike the quasit, then Ruine finishes it off, incinerating it with divine fire! Alainn scores a hit on the other fiend. The larger demon dodges Tasha’s attacks, then bites her face, ripping flesh! It tries to finish her with its claws, but she manages to parry its follow up attacks.
Ruinë's stands a little taller knowing she vanquished the quasit in the cleansing flames of Sarenrae, but her glory is short-lived when the demon literally begins ripping Tasha's face off. She tries to scream in panic, but turns from the hideous sight and cringes. "Tosh!" is all she can squeak.
She reaches out and puts her hand on Tasha's back. She holds her shoulder tightly and says "I'm here! I'm here! I've got you! Sarenrae, I need your warmth!"
After healing Tasha, she loads a bolt into the crossbow and takes aim at the demon.
Tasha falls back, her instinct to reach up and touch her face which is nothing but a source of pain, right now.
Trying to ignore it and aware of Ruinë nearby, she continues to stab at the beast.
Alainn studies the creature again and keeps shooting.
Tom sends 3 more daggers at the larger fiend!
The demon takes a hit from Tom and a critical strike from Tasha but is still standing. Grelda attempts to hex it but it resists her tugging on its fate. It bites and claws Tasha again, badly wounding her!
Determined not to let the fiend past her to her family, Tasha stabs desperately at the evil creature.
Tom gives another three knives to the task of killing evil.
Tom scores a hit with a knife, then Tasha drives her blade deep into the demon’s chest. At last, it falls, lying still in a pool of its blood.
The demon has a holy symbol of Gozreh draped loosely around its neck. Nearly everything of value in the chapel has been destroyed or defaced. The golden scales are worth 20 gp, and the quasit wears a crying angel pendant.
Both doors leading out of here are unlocked, but the heavy stone font will have to be moved to access the north one.
Ruinë's crossbow falters when she sees Tasha getting mauled again. Lowering her bow she shoots the back of a broken pew before reaching out to treat her wounds.
When the fiend falls, Tasha stumbles over to slump down into one of the pews. When the half-elf comes to her side and administer more healing, she covers her face. "Don't tell me how bad it is," she says. "You must be tired of dealing with my clumsiness by now."
Looking to the others, she instructs "Tom, take the others and look around for anything useful. I am going to see to Tasha."
Once they have space, she takes a knee in front of the wounded tiefling. "Don't be silly, it's just us now, alright? It's okay, it's okay. Let me see, Tosh." she says, gently pulling away the woman's hands to see her face.
It was bad.
Ruinë grimaces when she see the disfigurement, trying to refrain from doing so but unable to hold it in. The skin and flesh left of her nose and under her eyes was shred and completely missing, parts of her jaw exposed through the front of her face with her cheek muscles shredded. "I..." she starts, as she tries to diagnose what to do with this. "Oh Gods. Uhm. I. I, I can, uh." she pauses, blowing out a breath to stop herself from freaking out. "Okay, it's okay. I can stop the bleeding, stop the pain and prevent the wound from festering, but this is beyond my ability to heal right now. I-I'm sorry, Tasha. I should have been doing more studying to handle this. I promise I'll do more reading in the evening, I've been neglecting my readings."
Tasha's hand reaches out to brush against Ruinë's cheek. "Oh, Milaya," she says in a soothing voice. "You've done nothing wrong. Do what you can - It'll be enough."
She closes her eyes to take a moment's rest and let the half-elf work.
The cleric goes to work, but her trembling hands betray her inner frustrations. Unsure how to treat this particular injury without magic, the next ten minutes result in her apply some rudimentary first aid.
Smiles as an idea comes to her. ”I have just the thing.”
Reaching into her bag, she pulls out a long, thin red scarf she sometimes performs with. She asks ”Here. Let me wrap this around your wound. I’ll avoid your eyes so you can still see. Think of it as flair to catch your enemies off guard.”
And to lessen the reaction from our companions
"That bad, eh?" Tasha questions with a twisted smile when Ruinë offers her scarf. "Very well, for you alone will I cover my beautiful face," she says before taking the scarf and wrapping it around her face, leaving just her eyes exposed.
"Is everyone else ok?"
Ruinë smiles in return and leans forward to place the softest of kisses on Tasha's forehead. "Thank you."
She stands and goes to see the others, "Alright, we're finished. What do we have?"
Assuming her performance level of confidence, Tasha takes her feet and joins the rest of her family.
"We should see to the brothers outside before venturing any further here," she says, ignoring the looks of pity she imagines are being directed at her.
Alainn examines Tasha's face with the professional disinterest which she applied to the dead body of the ringmaster and animals with fungal infections alike.
"Not bad Ruine." She says calmly. "I have a salve in camp which might help too. You'll be fine Tasha. Maybe a little scar to make you extra dashing?"
As the group heads outside the gnome reviews her facts and opens a new case. "What is the purpose of the group in the church?"
As you approach the bloated men in the graveyard, they turn and scowl at you. ”Looks like they didn’t get the message the first time. Guess we’ll have to do things the hard way!”
"Thank you, Alainn. I wish I could do more, but this is beyond my skill level."
Ruinë sighs at the response from the man. "So much unnecessary violence." she remarks mostly to herself, shaking her head slowly.
Ruinë looks to Tom to make sure he intends to engage. Once he does so, she reluctantly lets the flames free from her hands and attempts to burn the man with a "I'm sorry it's come to this. Please stop fighting."
Tom, recognizing their hesitation, unleashes 2 daggers before beginning to {A}juggle 2 more and a lesser alchemist fire.
"this won't go well for you, surrender and I'll stop piercing your skin suit."
Tom scores a good hit with a dagger, but Ruine’s flame ray narrowly misses her target. The men move forward, one swinging his shovel at Tom. The half-elf dodges both strikes. The other one pauses, then something inside of him starts to wriggle and writhe. A horrific worm demon eats its way out of the body, devouring chunks of flesh before shrieking and flaring it’s disgusting mouthparts!
Tom does his best to overcome the sight of the worms bursting out of the skin suit but the horror of the sight still makes him frightened.
Still, Tom does his best to distract the one swinging the shovel at him by kicking some grave dirt in his face!
Then he throws a dagger at the one with the shovel , but he misses!
Then he throws the vial of liquid fire at the worms!
"Sadly enough, that is not the most disgusting thing that I've ever seen," Tasha quips, the horrific display seemingly having no effect upon her. "Ask me about it some time if you'd like."
She moves within striking range with her blade and stabs at the emerging worm.
The cleric has never seen anything quite like this before. She stares wide-eyed as she begins to shake and turns as she cries "Ah! No!" and vomits on her boots, falling to a knee.
She tries to recover, but is so sickened and frightened that she doesn't know what to do. "Gods, no." Turning her head, she closes her eyes. She already has crossbow in her hands, so she raises and fires, but her shot is terrible as she is unable to concentrate.
Grelda gasps and takes a step back as as the worm demon eats its way out of its skin suit. Shuddering, she blasts it with magic missiles!
Alainn resists the fear and scores a hit against the worm demon. Tasha manages to stab it once, and Tom sets it ablaze with his alchemist's fire! The juggler misses the other fiend with his dagger, and Ruine's crossbow bolt is off-target as well.
The demon still in the human body changes tactics, slamming bodily into Tom. The fiend pushes the half-elf, knocking him into one of the graves!
The burning worm demon attacks Tasha, trying to bite her and pummel her with its fists. Its jaws clamp shut around her neck, ripping open her throat and sending her down!
Wondering what she's done to deserve the run of bad fortune that she's been on the receiving end of, Tasha slowly rises to her feet determined not to let it be her defining element.
She then resumes her assault on the vile worm.
Vomit dripping down her face and tears in her eyes, Ruinë the Flame feels more like Ruinë the Incapable. Looking up from the ground, she sees that thing ripping apart Tasha's face. "Nononono." she whimpers between her bouts of retching. She reaches out for Tasha and heals her from where she is.
Not seeing Tom and Tasha on ground at that disgusting creatures feet, she ignores every warning in her body and rushes up to Tasha's side. Crying and sobbing, she continues to whimper "I'm here! I'm here!" as she places her hands on Tasha's body.
Tom casts about with his hands as he falls into a grave. His fingers grab ahold of a root sticking out of the loose earth and he's able to pull himself up!
Once he's regained his feet, he strikes out with his whip! One loud crack to distract him, before
Tom's voice is filled with rage.
"Riune? Is she alive?"
Seeing Tasha still badly hurt, Grelda uses her occult magic to heal the tiefling's wounds. Then she grants Tom a bit of guidance to get him out of the grave.
Tom manages to grab a hold of the grave and, with Grelda's guidance, pop back out. He fails to distract or strike the demon in front of him.
Grelda's and Ruine's magic get Tasha back onto her feet, causing both demons to scream in anguish at seeing a potential meal go to waste! The swashbuckler stabs the worm demon with her rapier. Alainn's first arrow sails over the fiend, but the second one strikes right into its gaping maw, and it falls, twitching to the ground.
Abandoning its attempts to shove Tom, the remaining demon attacks with its fists, bashing the half-elf twice!
Tom begins to {A}Juggle 2 knives and a healing potion.
Tom tries to shake off whatever anxiety has affected him by drinking the healing potion!
Tom drops his voice into his stage persona. "oh dear, and when the sisters found out, they were enraged..."
Whimpering, she nods at first but cries out "Yes! Still alive, somehow!" and retches, again.
Finally able to get everything out of her stomach, she wipes her mouth and looks up at the creature. She loads her crossbow and fires it, but her hands are still shaking too much for her to hold the weapon steady.
Tasha steps over the body of the dead demon and stabs at the one attacking Tom.
The worm demon resists Grelda's attempt to hex it. Tom and Ruine miss the fiend, but Tasha and Alainn each score a hit.
The demon messily chews its way out of its fleshy body, healing itself before it snaps at Tasha. The tiefling narrowly dodges its strike!